Labyrinth 2 in Review – It’s Balls to the Walls Awesome!

After the success of Labyrinth, which was released more than a year ago at the App Store, Illusion Labs have finally released a sequel to this massively popular iDevice game. Boasting tons of new features such as cannons, bumpers, merry-go-rounds as well as multiplayer via Bluetooth and WiFi, Illusion Labs have revamped a classic and essentially created a “must own” title for iPhone/iPod Touch gamers .

Right out of the wooden box, Labyrinth 2 comes with 20 levels packs (ranging from easy, medium, and hard), including a tutorial. Each level pack has its own challenges, as you are confronted with new obstacles such as magnets, doors and fans. You will even come across a duplicator that splits your ball into two, thus spicing up the challenge and gameplay. This mechanism is crucial on certain levels that require more than one switch to be activated at the same time.

While the 70+ levels are fun, they don’t last forever. Luckily, this is where Labyrinth 2’s biggest feature comes in – the community. With the ability to download countless level packs created by other players, the replayability value in Labyrinth 2 is nearly endless. Online level packs are categorized into 3 sections: New, All levels, and Top 25. Along with this, there is also a search function that allows you to look for specific user’s level packs (if you know their unique ID). A very handy “What’s Hot” area will let you download the most popular packs, which are rated by users out of 5 stars and in difficulty.

To create your own levels, you must know your ID number and pin code (which is given to you from within the app). Once logged into www.levelpack.com, you can start creating your own level packs using a simple drag and drop interface. Making level packs is not only fun, but also quite easy; which should encourage just about everyone to design their own Labyrinth and share ‘em with the community.

Being an accelerometer based game, it is paramount that the controls are spot on. Well, the good news is that they are indeed excellent in Labyrinth 2 . The accelerometer can be calibrated, which I found necessary for a couple levels. This along the beautiful visuals, only adds to the sheer awesomeness that is Labyrinth 2. You almost can’t help but feel like you’re playing with a real Wooden Labyrinth Puzzle.

This is one of those instances where calibrating accelerometer helps..

The multiplayer aspect of Labyrinth 2 pits you against up to 3 other friends. The objective in this mode is to beat your friend’s time on any chosen level. Overall, this was implemented well and it definitely adds another dimension to an already feature laden game.

Labyrinth 2 also has over 25 achievements, although I did encounter several related bugs. As you get closer to unlocking an achievement, there will be pop-ups notifying you of your progress. On a couple occasions, especially with the “beat the level maker’s time” achievement, it simply would not unlock (even though I clearly bested the time). My only other minor gripes are the lack of an online leaderboard as well as an in-game soundtrack. To counter the lack of a leaderboard, you can still attempt to beat the level creator’s best time. And for those of you who prefer to have some tunes playing in the background, you can always pump up the jam with music from your iDevice.

If Labyrinth 2 can be summed up into one statement, it would be: “fantastic sequel to a great classic game”. Labyrinth 2 exceeds its predecessor in every way, shape or form. Illusion Labs have built upon the original with some awesome additions and added a great deal of polish to the classic game. Without a doubt, Labyrinth 2 sets itself apart from most iPhone games – earning itself the highest rating.